UFC 135 draws 16,344 for $2.1 million live gate; third-best attendance of 2011

UFC 135 officially drew 16,344 attendees for a live gate of $2,089,575.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today obtained the official figures from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies’ Office of Boxing.

UFC 135 took place this past Saturday, Sept. 24, at Denver’s Pepsi Center. It was the UFC’s first event in Denver since “UFC: Ultimate Ultimate 1995″ (UFC 7.5) in 1995.

Of the UFC’s 18 events in 2011, UFC 135 ranked third in attendance only to UFC 129, the UFC’s first-ever stadium show, and UFC 127 (18,186) in Sydney. The April UFC 129 event shattered UFC and North American MMA attendance (55,724) and gate ($12,075,000) records.

As MMAjunkie.com previously reported, UFC officials initially announced an estimated 16,344 attendees and a $2 million gate.

Of the 16,344 attendees, according to the commission, 2,097 received complimentary tickets. Therefore, the average paid ticket price was $146.67.

UFC 135 saw UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones defend his belt with a fourth-round submission victory over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and Josh Koscheck scored a first-round TKO victory over Matt Hughes. Mark Hunt, Travis Browne and Nate Diaz also picked up victories on the pay-per-view main card, which followed prelims on Facebook and Spike TV.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

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